This invention relates to storage racks of that type installed in warehouses for the support of palletized merchandise, particularly to those designated storage rack sites which are utilized for order picking procedures by warehouse workers in fulfillment of order quantities for less than full palletized load amounts, and even more particularly to a split beam ergonomic pick rack which embodies a pallet storage bay structure adapted to accommodate at least two pallets in a spaced relationship one to the other whereby there is incorporated a worker access opening therebetween which enables a worker not only access for picking merchandise from the front of either pallet, but passage also from the front along the respective sides and to the rear areas thereof, thus providing greater worker ease, safety and efficiency in manual order picking procedures when retrieving palletized merchandise from racked in warehouse storage.
Storage rack structures which provide spaced openings are those designed to admit entry of a fork lift truck for ease of positioning and depositing fully palletized loads for storage, commonly referred to as drive-in racks such as those exemplified by the teachings respectively in U.S. Pat. No. 3,323,655 to Foran et al. dated Jun. 6, 1967 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,273,170 to Azzopardi et al. dated Dec. 28, 1993.
In another teaching, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,117,938 to Klein dated Oct. 3, 1978, a protector arm assembly is shown for a fork lift truck drive-in type pallet storage rack wherein the protector arm is mounted to a front vertical rack support post beneath an extended pallet rail so as to forwardly project from the post to serve as a bumper for preventing injuries to personnel and loads resultant from striking the end of an extended pallet rail. The protector arm attachment, however, is not a load bearing member per se with regard to loaded pallet support, nor is it intended or function as such, and it does not provide worker access between pallets for enhanced order picking procedures.
An alternate version of the split beam ergonomic pick rack of instant invention embodies the use of inclined side-by-side inflow and outflow roller conveyor sections, wherein the depth of the storage bay is sufficient to accommodate at least two loaded pallets one behind the other on either side of the split beam, which creates a worker access opening therebetween for allowing order picking procedures from the inflow section side. Exemplary teachings which show the use of inclined side-by-side roller conveyor sections, but without the split beam structural features, are as respectively taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,659,723 to Konstant dated May 2, 1972, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,641 to Rasmussen et al. dated Jun. 12, 1984.
The applicants herein, however, by their invention provide a convenient new and novel ergonomic pick rack by means of their split beam structure, whereby manual order picking workers are provided with greater and easier access to rack stored palletized merchandise so that their jobs may be accomplished with greater safety and efficiency.